Method for producing glass sands and system therefor

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for producing glass sands by a method which includes the steps of crushing glass articles to convert them into fine fragments so as to form glass fragments, then agitating finely crushed glass fragments to eliminate sharp portions while at the same time forming glass fragments into glass sands with a predetermined granular configuration, then sieving foreign materials which have been entrapped into glass sands formed in a granular configuration, while at the same time sorting out glass sands according to their grain sizes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a method and system forcrushing glass articles such as glass bottles etc., for disposal, andparticularly to a method and apparatus for forming glass sands which maybe effectively used as aggregates for road pavement, colored pavingmaterials for walkways, traffic controlling white line markers to beapplied on an asphalt cross-walk, various grinding materials, matrixmaterial for potters, construction materials such as outer walls, blockmaterials and in other application, in substitution for natural sands,by crushing glass articles for a disposal purpose.

Traditionally it has been a common process to crush used glass bottlesetc., and use them as a material for reclaiming glass bottles etc.,while discharging other portions which have been finely crushed togetherwith a washing water so that they may be disposed as industrial wastematerials. However, it has been proved to be advantageous if such stockmaterials which have been disposed as industrial waste materials so farafter they are crushed into fine fragments is used as aggregates forroad pavement, colored paving materials for walkways, trafficcontrolling white line markers to be applied on an asphalt cross-walk,various grinding materials, matrix material for potters, constructionmaterials such as outer walls, block materials and in other application,in substitution for natural sands which have been used extensively.

In a current situation in which an excavation of natural sands mayaccelerate the environmental destruction and ruin the natural ecology,such production of glass sands come to play a vital role in preventingthe destruction of nature.

Consequently, the applicant has disclosed a novel method and apparatusfor producing glass sands from glass bottles etc., which can be usedeffectively in substitution for natural sands, while ensuring an easyhandling without the risk of piercing operators' hands etc., byprocessing them such that sharp crushed edges may be changed into smoothcrushed surfaces (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,604, Japanese PatentApplication Laid-open No. 9-99250).

In this prior art, as shown in FIG. 15, the glass articles 1 such asglass bottles etc., are supplied by means of first transfer device 2into a primary crusher 3 where the glass articles 1 are crushed by meansof crushing means 4, and then delivered to a underlying delivery section6 via a sorter 5. The sorter 5 is adapted to sort out papers such aslabels etc., and metallic or cork-made caps etc., that would stick tothe glass articles which have been crushed, as well as glass fragmentswhich have been insufficiently crushed to retain dimensions larger thanthose specified in the crusher 3, and then to discharge them out of theprimary crusher 3.

The crushed articles, which have fallen into the delivery section 6, arethen supplied to a secondary transfer device 8 by means of magneticscreening-transfer device 7. At this step, iron caps, nails and otherferrous fragments, which might be entrapped, may be removed into aferrous-fragment container 9, by means of magnetic screening-transferdevice 7. Then, crushed articles are fed into a secondary crusher 10.

In this secondary crusher 10, a container section 11 receives crushedarticles and a crushing section may act to crush the glass material intofiner fragments. Finally, sieving means 13 sort and deliver the articleswhich have been crushed, according to their grain sizes. The secondarycrushing means 14 in the secondary crusher 10 are designed such that ablade may be arranged with a space narrower than that in the crushingmeans 4 of the primary crusher 3 and/or that it may rotate with a highernumber of rotation. Furthermore, the crusher is equipped with a dualcrushing means as shown in the drawing and may crush the glasses intofragments smaller than those of glass articles as crushed in the primarycrusher, while at the same time rubbing glass fragments against eachother so as to form approximately a spherical configuration and changesharp edges of these glasses which have been crushed-into smooth ones.The secondary crusher 10 is connected with a dust collector 15. Thesieve means 13 serves to return the glass powder which has not passedthrough the uppermost sieve back to the secondary crusher 10 by means ofreturn transfer device 16 and secondary transfer device 8. The glasspowders with approximately round crushed surfaces which have not passedthrough the sieve in the next lower stage-sieve may be used insubstitution for natural sands on the walkway, and the glass powderswhich have not passed through a further lower stage-sieve may besuitably applied, for example, as aggregates of asphalt. Moreover, theglass powders which have passed through this sieve may find its'application as construction materials, grinding materials or road pavingmaterials. The glass articles dropped from the sieve device withoutpassing through each of sieves are transferred to a paper-sorter 17 viaa return/transfer device 16 just in the same way as that for the glassarticles which have not passed through the first sieve, where they areseparated into glass articles and labels etc., and then returned back tothe secondary crusher 10 again by means of secondary conveyor 8. Byrepeating such actions as above-described, the glass sands which aresorted into three classes may be produced, depending on theirgrain-sizes.

FIG. 16 is a view disclosing an entire system which is arranged from thefirst crusher to the secondary crusher in a vertical configuration.Since each of the units is substantially identical to those as shown inFIG. 15, they are indicated by the same reference numerals of FIG. 15with the letter “a” affixed. The glass articles 1 a such as the glassbottles etc., are supplied to the primary crusher 3 a by means of firsttransfer device 2 a and caused to be crushed under action of thecrushing means 4 a such as rotor etc. Subsequently, the glass articlesare supplied to the secondary transfer device 8 a via the sorter 5 a (7a), and then transferred into the secondary crusher 10 a where they arecrushed into finer fragments, and finally are sorted and discharged bysieve means 13 a according to their grain sizes. In the meantime,reference numerals 16 a and 17 a represent a return/transfer device anda paper sorter respectively. There is landing 18 which is used by theoperator during maintenance of the system. Since working operations arecarried out while the articles are being moved by gravity from upperportion to lower portion in the embodiment as shown FIG. 16, there maybe an additional advantage in that less power is required to operate thesystem in comparison with the embodiment in FIG. 15.

However, in the known method for producing glass sands asabove-described, a device is utilized as the secondary crusher 10, whichmay crush glass fragments which have been previously crushed 3 by theprimary crusher to a certain degree, and thus there is a limit on sizesof glass fragments which may be supplied from the primary crusher 3 intothe secondary crusher 10, resulting in that a sorter 5 must be arrangedbelow the primary crusher 3 so as to sort and exclude glass fragments ofcertain sizes (ex. 20 mm) or greater so that they are not be supplied tothe secondary sorter 10.

Additionally, the secondary crusher 10 in the known system has itsinternal surface formed by plying ceramic materials which have improvedresistance against abrasion so that it may not be damaged by sharp glassedges which have been crushed by means of primary crusher 3. However,ceramic materials are very vulnerable to shock. Thus, if metallicmaterials are accidentally entrapped in this secondary crusher 10, themetallic materials may be repulsed by the secondary crushing means 14 soas to impinge against the ceramic surface, and thus the ceramic materialsurfaces can be easily damaged. Therefore, there arises a need toreliably remove metallic foreign objects such as caps and nails etc.,from the glass fragments to be introduced into the secondary crusher 10,resulting in that a magnetic screening device etc., must be installed.

Furthermore, the necessity for such ancillary equipment creates aproblem that the entire system becomes bulky and expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To solve the above-described problem, the present invention provide amethod for producing glass sands, in which the method comprises steps ofcrushing the glass articles into finer glass fragments, agitating suchglass fragments which have been finely crushed and treating glassfragments so that they contain no sharp edges while at the same timeforming glass fragments into glass sands with predetermined grain-sizes,then, sieving foreign materials which have been entrapped into glasssands which have been formed as grains while simultaneously sortingglass sands according to their grain-sizes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention willappear from the description which follows of preferred embodiments,given by way of illustration and without limitation, in which:

FIG. 1 is a general plan view of the device for producing glass sands inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view taken along the line 2—2 in FIG. 1, showingthe general side view of the device for producing glass sands inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the secondary crushing device inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the secondary crushing device in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the secondary crushingchamber which constitutes the secondary crushing device in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of the agitating device in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a side view of the agitating device in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view showing the agitating device inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a plan elevation showing how the secondary crushing device maybe combined with the agitating device in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a side view showing how the secondary crushing device may becombined with the agitating device in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 11 is a plan elevation showing an alternative embodiment of thedevice in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a side view in an embodiment shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a plan elevation showing a further alternative embodiment ofthe device in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a side view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is a general side view showing the first embodiment of a priorart glass sand-producing device;

FIG. 16 is a general side view showing an alternative embodiment of theprior art glass sand-producing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a general plan view-of the system in accordance with theinvention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view taken along line 2—2 in FIG.1. The system 20 of the present invention for use to produce glass sandsby disposing waste glass bottles and other glass fragments comprises afirst supplying conveyor 21 for supplying used waste glass articles (notshown), a primary crushing device 22 which receives waste glass articlesto be supplied from the first supplying conveyor 21 so as to crush themin a primary crushing operation, a secondary supplying conveyor 23 forsupplying glass fragments with sharp crushed edges which have beencrushed by means of primary crushing device 22, a secondary crushingdevice 24 which receives glass fragments to be supplied from thesecondary supplying conveyor 23 and crushing them into finer grains in asecondary crushing operation, agitating device 25 for agitating glassfragments which have been crushed by the secondary crushing device 24and for rubbing such glass fragments against each other to process themto change sharp crushed edges of the glass fragments into smooth ones,and thereby creating glass sands substantially of sphericalconfiguration, a third supplying conveyor 26 for supplying conveyor 26for supplying glass sands which have been agitated and formed by theagitating device 25, a grain-size sorter 27 for receiving glass sands tobe supplied from the third supplying conveyor 26 and sorting them bytheir grain-sizes, a fourth conveyor 28 for feeding a mixture of glassfragments which have been sorted by means of sorter 27, metallic foreignmaterials such as metallic caps and nails, and other foreign materialssuch as cork and labels etc., and a wind-operated sorter 29 forreceiving the mixture that has been supplied from the fourth conveyor 28and sorting them utilizing wind power.

Reference numerals 30 and 31 represent a dust collector and a switchboard respectively. The dust collector 30 may act to collect dusts anddebris which may be produced during primary and secondary crushingactions carried out in the primary crushing device 22 or the secondarycrushing device 24, and additionally debris which may be created duringsorting operation of the sorter 27 as well as debris which may bescreened from the wind-operated type sorter 29. The switch board 31 maycontrol power sources for respective devices and conveyors etc. They maybe arranged variably to match suitably to an installation space of thesystem.

In the description to follow, the glass sand-producing system 20 of thepresent invention will be described with reference to an aspect in whichit differs from the known device as shown in FIG. 15. In the system 20of the present invention, used waste glass articles (not shown) arewashed to a certain degree, and excess foreign materials are removed asfar as it may permit, and then these glass articles are loaded onto thefirst supplying conveyor 21. The first supplying conveyor 21 issubstantially identical in its construction and performance with thoseof the first transfer device 2 as shown in FIG. 15. The primary crushingdevice 22 of the system 20 of the present invention is a device adaptedto receive glass articles which are supplied from the first supplyingconveyor 21 and perform a primary crushing operation, providingsubstantially the same operation as that of first transfer device 2 asshown in FIG. 15. However, the primary crusher is slightly differentfrom the first transfer device in its construction and performance. Theprimary crushing operation mentioned herein means a step in which glassarticles are pre-crushed prior to the full crushing operation to beundertaken by the secondary crushing device which crushes the glassarticles by means of a rotary blade and a fixed blade. Thus, when theglass fragments which have been crushed to a certain degree at the stockyard etc., are supplied, and in other applications, the primary crushingdevice 22 and the first supplying conveyor 21 may be dispensed with.

The primary crushing device 22 comprises a receiving inlet 32 (see FIG.2) at its upper portion for receiving glass articles which are to besupplied from the first supplying conveyor 21. Arranged below the inlet32 is a primary crushing chamber 33 in which crushing means are freelyrotatably accommodated to provide the same function as that of crushingmeans 4 such as rotor and the like in FIG. 15. Furthermore, an outlet(not shown) is provided below the primary crushing chamber 33, throughwhich glass fragments which have been crushed in the primary crushingstep are supplied to the secondary supplying conveyor 23 while theyretain glass fragments with sharp crushed edges. In the case of theprimary crushing device 22 of the present system 20, there is no sortingunit which corresponds to the sorter 5 or a magnet-screening/transferdevice 7 as shown in FIG. 15. Thus, a sorting operation is not effectedfor papers such as labels which are adhered to the glass fragments, ormetallic or cork caps, and furthermore glass fragments which have beencrushed only insufficiently to retain their dimensions greater thanstandards may not be sorted out. They are all put into the hopper 35 ofsecondary crushing device 24 from the secondary supplying conveyor 23,all as they are.

The secondary crushing device 24 comprises, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.4, a hopper 35, a secondary crushing chamber 36 in which a secondarycrushing operation is carried out for crushing articles that have beenreceived in the hopper 35, an exhaust outlet 37 from which crushingarticles that have been crushed as a secondary step in the secondarychamber 36 may be discharged, and a holding table 38 which acts toretain the secondary crushing device 24. The secondary crushing chamber36 is preferably arranged with an inclination angle of approximately20-45° relative to a vertical surface, by means of the holding table 38,as shown in FIG. 4. This is for the reason that it may permit agravity-relied secondary crushing operation.

The secondary crushing chamber 36 comprises, as shown in FIG. 5, ahousing side wall 40 of substantially an U-shaped configuration, a frontpanel 41 which closes a frontal lower portion of the housing side wall40, a pair of flange plates each extending in the inward direction inwhich they oppose each other at the frontal upper portion of thehousing, said flange plates 42 forming an opening 43 in its intermediateportion through which the hopper 35 may be received, a rear surfacepanel 44 which closes the rear surface of the housing side wall 40, arotary blade 45 which is rotatably accommodated in a housing which isformed by the housing side wall 40, frontal panel 41 and the rearsurface panel 44, a plurality of fixed blades 46 arranged on the innersurface of the housing side wall 40, and a closure panel 47 which actsto close the upper portion of the housing side wall 40 to prevent debrisand dusts from entering though the upper portion.

The frontal panel 41 is provided with a bore through which the shaft 48of the rotary blade 45 extends, and a bearing for receiving the shaft48. The shaft 48 is provided at its end with a pulley 50 which is drivento operate via a V-belt (not shown) by an actuating device 49 (see FIG.3 and FIG. 4) which is separately arranged. The opposite end of theshaft 48 of the rotary blade 45 is similarly retained in position bymeans of bore and bearing that are defined in the rear surface panel 44.The frontal panel 41 is also bored with an inspection hole 51.

The rear surface panel 44 is formed at its upper right-handed portionwith an exhaust opening 37 (not shown). The exhaust opening 37 isdefined by a guide panel 52 (see FIG. 3) which extends from the closurepanel 47 to a position closer to an area where the rotary blade 45rotates, and may prevent the crushed articles which have charged throughthe hopper 35 from being discharged through the exhaust opening 37without being subjected to the secondary crushed step. Therefore, thecrushing articles which have been charged into the hopper 35 poured tothe left side of the guide plate 52, in FIG. 3, and only the secondarycrushed articles which have been subjected to the secondary crushingstep with the rotary blade 45 may pass through the right-handed side ofthe guide plate 52 and are discharged through the exhaust opening 37.

The rotary blade 45 is formed, for example, from four rotor blades 55each being arranged with a predetermined spacing therebetween. Theserotor blades 55 are formed from a specially hardened steel. On the otherhand, the fixed blade 46 is formed, for example, from four blades eachbeing arranged with a predetermined spacing therebetween in the areawhere the rotary blade may rotate, in the example as illustrated. Eachof fixed blades 46 has grooves 57 through which the tip end of the rotorblade 55 may rotate and pass therethrough. The number of these grooves57 may be suitably varied; it may be, for example, four in the firstfixed blade and three in the second fixed blade. Alternatively, thenumber of grooves in all fixed blades may be made equal. Each of fixedblades 46 may preferably be secured in position by means of bolts etc.,so as to allow replacement, by suitably inserting a new one into theside wall of the housing, when the blade 46 is worn out.

The secondary crushing device 24 may strike articles such as metallicfragments, paper fragments such as labels and corks to be supplied fromthe first crushing device 22 together with the glass fragments by meansof rotary blade 45 and fixed blade 46 in the secondary crushing chamber36. Thus, the glass fragments are crushed into finer fragments, whilemetallic fragments are collapsed and labels etc., are peeled off theglass surfaces. The side wall 40, the frontal panel 41, the rear surfacepanel 44 and the like which forms the housing are formed from a specialsteel material with improved wear-resistant and shock-resistantcharacteristics. Therefore, even if the metallic fragments collideagainst the side wall of the housing etc., while being in a collapsedcondition, the side wall of the housing and the like will not be damagedsignificantly. A centrifugal force is urged due to rotation of rotaryblade 45 of the secondary crushing device 24, and thus the glassfragments and the like may collide against each other in the secondarycrushing chamber 36, resulting in that they are fragmented. Thereafter,the crushing materials which have been crushed by the secondary crushingdevice 24 under the scraping action of the rotary blade 45 pass by theright-handed side of guide plate 52 in FIG. 3 and are discharged throughthe discharge outlet 37 in the secondary crushing chamber 36 and thensupplied to the agitating device 25.

The agitating device 25 is formed from an agitating chamber 59 andholding table 60 upon which the agitating chamber 59 is retained, asshown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. The agitating chamber 59 is formed from ahopper 61, a main body 62 acting to agitate the secondary crushedmaterial received by the hopper 61, and a discharge outlet 63 throughwhich the crushed material may be discharged after being agitated in themain body 62 and processed in such a manner that the material fragmentsmay be rubbed against each other so that sharp edges may be changed intosmooth ones. The agitating chamber 59 is arranged to inclineapproximately with an angle of 20-45° relative to a horizontal plane, bymeans of the holding table 60, as shown in FIG. 7. This inclinationangle should preferably be made smaller than that of the secondarycrushing device 24 relative to the vertical plane.

The agitating chamber 59 has a main body 62 of substantially cylindricalshape, and is closed at its opposite ends by an upper lid 64 and a lowerlid 65. An agitating body 66 is accommodated in the main body 62. Theagitating body 66 is formed from a central rotary shaft 67, a pair oflugs 68, each forming a cross-shape which extends at a normal angletowards each other with a predetermined spacing therebetween from aposition adjacent to its opposite ends in a radially outward direction,and four agitating blades 69 made from a special hardened steel whichextends in parallel with the axial direction of the rotary shaft 67 andhas its end fixed in position on the tip end of the lug 68. The rotaryshaft 67 is rotatably retained in position by a bearing, and the shaftextends outwardly from the main body 62 via a bore defined in thecentral portion of upper lid 64 and lower lid 65, respectively. Thebearing is threaded in position on the upper lid 64 and the lower lid65. The rotary shaft 67 is provided at its lower end with a pulley 71which may be actuated via a V-belt (not shown) and the like by means ofactuating device 70 (see FIG. 6 and FIG. 7) which is separatelyarranged. Thus, the agitating body 66 is made to be freely rotatable. Inthe meantime, in the embodiment illustrated in the drawing, theagitating blade 69 is formed as a straight blade, but it may be made asa curved blade as needed. By making the agitating blade as a curvedblade, the agitating chamber 59 may be mounted horizontally, and therebyallowing easy installation. In this case, a pair of lugs 68 is arrangedin a twisted configuration relative to the rotary shaft 67. Furthermore,the number of agitating blade is not limited to four, but a greater orlesser number may be selected.

The function of the agitating device 25 is to form the glass fragmentssubstantially in a spherical configuration by reliably eliminating sharpportions which have been formed by the secondary crushing device 24.Thus, fine glass fragments with sharp portions are caused to rotate byagitating body 66 in the agitating chamber 59, together with otherforeign materials. At this moment, sharp portions of the glass fragmentsare made to rub against the inner wall of the main body 62 to abrade thesharp portions, and thus glass sands are completed substantially in aspherical configuration with smooth angular portion.

In this case, it may be possible to adjust several factors includingradial dimensions of the lug 68 and main body 62, the inclination angleof the agitating device 25, and the rotating speed of the agitating body66 etc., and thereby allowing one to increase an amount of glass powdersor reduce roundness of individual sands, so as to produce glass sands inaccordance with a preference of end users.

In the meantime, the combined operation of the secondary crushing device24 and the agitating device 25 is preferable from the viewpoint ofsaving installation space. Consequently, FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 show oneexample of a preferable mode of combining the secondary crushing device24 and the agitating device 25. In this arrangement, the secondarycrushing device 24 is directly connected at its exhaust outlet 37 withthe hopper 60 of the agitating device 25, and these two devices arearranged such that they may cross with other at their inclination angle.However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration, andone can freely select the mode of arrangement for respective devices.

The glass sands which have been sufficiently agitated by the agitatingdevice 25 leave from the discharge outlet 62 of the agitating chamber61, and then are supplied to the grid-sorter 27 via the third supplyingconveyor 26. This grid-sorter 27 is constructed and operatedsubstantially identically with sieving means 13 as shown in FIG. 15, andmay sieve out the glass sands into, for example, three or more classesaccording to their grain sizes. That is, the glass sands which have beenprocessed such that they have fine and smooth crushed edges by theagitating device 25 are supplied to a multi-stage sieving device whichis being vibrated as known in the art, and then sieved out according tothe size of sieve. This sieving device 27 may be formed, for example,from three stages of sieves, in which the uppermost sieve has the meshsize of approximately 5.0 mm, and the next-stage sieve has the mesh-sizeof approximately 2.5 mm, with subsequent lower sieves having themesh-size of approximately 1.0 mm, like the sieving means 13 in FIG. 15.Foreign materials such as glass fragments, metallic fragments, cork andlabels with approximately 5.0 mm or more dimensions which could not passthrough the uppermost sieve are supplied to the wind-operated sorter 29which is known per se., in which they are sorted by the wind, andmetallic fragments and foreign materials are delivered out of the line.On the other hand, glass fragments are supplied to the first supplyingconveyor 21. The glass powders which have passed through the uppermostsieve, but have not passed through the next lower-stage sieve,substantially having the size of 2.5 mm to 5.0 mm may be collected in apredetermined container. The crushed surfaces of glass sand products ofthese dimensions have substantially a round configuration due to ahigh-speed crushing and molding operation to be activated by the rotaryblade and the agitating body, and thus may be most suitably applied as asubstitute of natural sands on the walkway. The glass powers which havepassed through the second-stage sieve, but has not passed through thenext lower stage-sieve, having dimensions substantially in the range of1.0 mm-2.5 mm may be collected in a separate container. The glassarticles with such dimensions may be most suitably applied as aggregatesof the asphalt. Furthermore, fragments of glass bottles with approximatedimensions smaller than 1.0 mm which have passed through this sieve maybe collected in a separate container, and the glass powders thuscollected in this container may be used as building materials, grindingor road-paving materials. The glass articles which have dropped from thesieving device 27 without passing through each of sieves duringvibration may be collected into the container, and again returned backto the first supplying conveyor 21, just like the glass articles whichhave not passed through the first sieve.

The embodiments in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 show examples in which each unit,that is, a first crushing device, a secondary crushing device, anagitating device and grid-sorting device etc. are formed vertically as aseries of laminated structure. Each of the devices which are used inthis embodiment is constructed and operated in the same manner as thoseof embodiments shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 10, and therefore the operationof this embodiment will be described using the same reference symbols asthose used in the previous embodiments, excepting that the prime letter“a” is affixed.

Used glass bottles etc., are supplied by means of the first supplyingconveyor 21 a, to the primary uppermost crushing device 22 a in theglass sand-producing tower 20 a which are arranged in a series laminatedconfiguration, and in which a primary crushing step is carried out.Then, the glass materials drop by gravity from the primary crushingdevice 22 a and are supplied to the secondary crushing device 24 a inwhich the secondary crushing step is taken. Thereafter, the glassmaterials are charged into the agitating device 25 a which is arrangeddirectly below the secondary crushing device 24 a, as shown in FIG. 9 orFIG. 10, in which they are agitated so as to be converted intopredetermined shapes. Furthermore, the glass materials are transferredout of the exhaust outlet 63 a of the agitating device 25 a into thegrid sorter 27 a in which they may be sorted according to their gridsizes, and products are contained in predetermined product container 72respectively via the product conveyor 71, while other foreign materialsetc. are fed to the wind-operated sorter 29 by means of the fourthsupply conveyor 28 a, in which they may sorted by wind.

Meanwhile, in the drawing, the primary crushing device 22 a, thesecondary crushing device 24 a, the agitating device 25 a and thegrid-sorter 27 a etc. are all formed as a vertical laminated construct.However, for reason of working space, working efficiency and the like,it will be obviously understood by those skilled in the art that atleast one or two of these devices may be removed from thislongitudinally laminated construction, and may be independentlyinstalled.

FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 show a further embodiment of the invention. Whilethe previous embodiment as above-described are disclosed In terms ofglass sand-producing system with an immovable configuration so as to beinstalled on the land, this embodiment discloses a type of glass sandproducing device that can be loaded onto a transporting means 73 such asa known truck etc. In this embodiment, there is no need of having aspecial-purpose mill in which the glass producing system is installed,and thereby allowing one to produce glass sands at any arbitrary placein a straightforward manner, while at the same time permittingproduction of v glass sands directly at the very work site where finalproducts may be applied. Construction and operation of the devices usedin this embodiment are substantially the same with those of embodimentsas described in FIG. 1 to FIG. 10, and so the same reference numeralsare used as those in the previous embodiments with the letter “b”affixed.

Used bottles and the like are then supplied to the primary crushingdevice 22 b by the first supplying conveyor 21 b via a special-purposecharging table 74, in which device they are subjected to a primarycrushing operation. The glass bottles are subsequently supplied from thefirst crushing device 22 b to the secondary crushing device 24 b and theagitating device 25 b which is arranged below the secondary crushingdevice through the secondary supplying conveyor 23 b, in which thematerials are subjected to the secondary crushing operation andagitation, and then converted into predetermined shapes. Moreover,materials are transferred from the agitating device 25 a to thegrid-sorter 27 b by means of third supplying conveyor 26 b, in whichthey may be sorted by their grid-sizes, and the products may becontained in predetermined containers respectively according to theirgrain sizes. Meanwhile, a wind-operated sorter is not present in thisvehicle-loadable type glass sand-producing system for reason of space.Reference numerals 30 b and 31 b represent the dust collector and theswitch board respectively.

The charging table 74 is shown when it is loaded on a vehicle, but thecharging table 74 may also be installed on land only for a limitedperiod of work, by allowing the first conveyor 21 b to extend to theland. By so doing, the need of lifting used glass products up to a cargocarrier on a vehicle can be dispensed with. Furthermore, an auxiliaryconveyor may alternatively be used for supplying used glass productsfrom a land area to the charging table 74 on a vehicle. In thisembodiment, it is also possible to dispense with the primary crushingdevice, and instead the secondary crushing device may be arranged inplace of the current primary crushing device, so that only the crushingdevice is present at a place previously occupied by the currentsecondary crushing device. It may of course be possible to unload theentire system onto land if so needed, after it is moved by thetransferring device 73. Therefore, the entire system may be constructedas one unit so that it may be easily unloaded from the cargo carrier ifso required.

Because these is no limit as to sizes of the glass fragments that can besupplied to the secondary crushing device, the need of arranging adevice adapted to select crushed glass fragments in the secondarycrushing device according to their sizes may be eliminated. Furthermore,the primary crushing device may be omitted, if so required.

Moreover, the crushing chamber 36 is made from special steel withimproved wear-resistant and impact-resistant characteristics.Consequently, even if metallic fragments are entrapped in the crushingchamber, there is little risk of the crushing chamber being damaged.Therefore, a co-existence of the metallic lid etc. together with theglass fragments is permitted, whereby eliminating the need forpre-treatment steps such as those of removing the metallic lid etc.,beforehand.

Furthermore, ancillary installations such as a sorter for removing glassfragments of dimensions greater than those as predetermined, and amagnetic screening device etc., for preventing entrapment of themetallic fragments may not be needed. Moreover, components may bearranged, for example, in a laminated configuration as shown in FIG. 12,or the primary crushing device may be omitted, and thereby allowing theentire system to be built in a compact configuration with an inexpensivecost.

The device may be made to be transportable to any place as needed, byloading it onto a transferring means, and thus glass sands may beproduced at any work site.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for producing glass sands, said systemcomprising: a crushing device for crushing glass articles in order toconvert the glass articles into fine fragments so as to form glassfragments; an agitating device for agitating the glass fragments thathave been finely crushed so as to eliminate sharp portions of the glassfragments, while at the same time converting the glass fragments intoglass sands having predetermined grain sizes; and a sorting device forsieving out foreign materials that have been entrapped in the glasssands formed in a granular configuration, while at the same time sortingthe glass sands according to their grain sizes.
 2. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim wherein said crushing devicecomprises a primary crusher and a secondary crusher.
 3. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 2, further comprising awind-operated sorting device adapted to sort out the foreign materialsthat have been entrapped in the glass sands, after the foreign materialshave been sieved.
 4. The system for producing glass sands as claimed inclaim 2, wherein said agitating device comprises an agitating chamberhaving a hopper, a main body communicating with said hopper, an exhaustoutlet, an agitating body mounted in said main body for free rotationtherein, and an actuation device capable of causing said agitating bodyto rotate within said main body.
 5. The system for producing glass sandsas claimed in claim 2, wherein said secondary crusher includes asecondary crushing chamber that is formed of steel having excellentshock-resistant and wear-resistant characteristics.
 6. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 1, further comprising awind-operated sorting device adapted to sort out the foreign materialsthat have been entrapped in the glass sands, after the foreign materialshave been sieved.
 7. The system for producing glass sands as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said crushing device comprises a crushing chamber, saidcrushing chamber comprising a housing, an inlet opening, an exhaustoutlet, a guide plate disposed within said housing for separating saidinlet opening from said exhaust outlet, at least one fixed blade fixedin position inside of said housing, a rotary blade rotatably supportedin said housing, wherein said rotary blade and said fixed blade arepositioned relative to each other so that glass fragments can be crushedbetween said rotary blade and said fixed blade.
 8. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 7, wherein said at least onefixed blade comprises four fixed blades, and said four fixed blades arepositioned radially outwardly of said rotary blade.
 9. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 7, wherein said crushingchamber is inclined relative to a vertical plane.
 10. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 1, wherein said crushingdevice comprises a crushing chamber, and said crushing chamber comprisesa housing, an inlet opening, an exhaust outlet, a guide plate disposedwithin said housing for separating said inlet opening from said exhaustoutlet, a plurality of fixed blades mounted on an interior peripheralsurface of said housing, a rotary blade supported in said housing so asto be rotatable about an axis of rotation, said rotary blade and saidfixed blades being relatively positioned such that glass fragments canbe crushed between said rotary blade and said fixed blades upon rotationof said rotary blade.
 11. The system for producing glass sands asclaimed in claim 10, wherein each of said fixed blades includes aplurality of spaced blade members defining grooves through which an endportion of said rotary blade passes upon rotation of said rotary blade.12. The system for producing glass sands as claimed in claim 11, whereinsaid rotary blade includes a plurality of spaced rotary blade members.13. The system for producing glass sands as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid agitating device comprises an agitating chamber having a hopper, amain body communicating with said hopper, an exhaust outlet, anagitating body mounted in said main body for free rotation therein, andan actuation device capable of causing said agitating body to rotatewithin said main body.
 14. The system for producing glass sands asclaimed in claim 13, wherein said agitating chamber is inclined relativeto a horizontal plane.
 15. The system for producing glass sands asclaimed in claim 13, wherein said agitating body comprises a centralrotary shaft, a lug connected to said central rotary shaft, an agitatingblade supported by said lug in a position that is radially outwardlyspaced from said rotary shaft.
 16. The system for producing glass sandsas claimed in claim 15, wherein said agitating blade is a straightblade.
 17. The system for producing glass sands as claimed in claim 15,wherein said agitating blade is a curved blade.
 18. The system forproducing glass sands as claimed in claim 1, wherein said crushingdevice, said agitating device and said sorting device are connected inseries and positioned relative to each other so as to form a laminatedstructure.
 19. The system for producing glass sands as claimed in claim1, wherein at least two of said crushing device, said agitating deviceand said sorting device for sorting glass fragments according to theirgrain sizes are connected in series and positioned relative to each soas to form a laminated structure.
 20. The system for producing glasssands as claimed in claim 1, wherein the entire system, including saidcrushing device, said agitating device and said sorting device forsorting the glass fragments according to their grain sizes, is capableof being loaded on a transporting means.